the Ranger
by MikeRayburn2481
Summary: For millennia varying governments on Coruscant have agreed on one policy: that technology should never be allowed to outpace or replace organic beings. But now smuggler and thief Ado L'sau has stumbled onto a conspiracy that aims to strike at the heart of that belief
1. Chapter 1

**The Ranger**

****this story is set during the Late Legacy Era of Star Wars. The Fel Empire based on Coruscant, the Galactic Alliance which had 3 different "capitals", and the Jedi Order on Tython have formed a formal league called the Triumvirate to prevent anymore internal wars over politics and instead turn their attention to the surrounding galaxies. It is a new Golden Age**

"_the Clone Wars were a cleansing and revitalization for the galaxy. The centuries leading up to them the Republic had became bloated and corrupt, violent and organized crime increased, family breakups increased, the list goes on. But all of those things emanate from the loss of the Jedi living vessels of the divine. They had been maneuvered into becoming political tools through Rusaan, and that position as Republic Special forces rather than spiritural leaders and protectors allowed the rot to set in. attendance at temples across the galaxy went way down. Poll respondents answered that they viewed the Force as an evolutionary design rather than the manifestation of the divine. This allowed Palpatine to take over. But alas his takeover is what brought us back. Today governments have never been more trusted, marriages have an 80% chance to survive 20 years, crime is down to levels never recorded, and the list goes on in the vein too. I hear people compare the Triumvirate Age to the Old Republic Age but all I can think is what foolish talk. While its true the Force was revered, and the Jedi were seen as living vessels, but only by half the population. The other half was devoted to using the Force for power and believed the Jedi were weak and wasting their divine gift to protect a corrupt multicultural society. And somehow it was the Jedi who got the blame for half the galaxy's ill intent at Rusaan and we have circled back to the beginning" ~__**Jen-Som Lovara, celebrated historian and lay priest**_

**Chapter 1: A Door Closes**

"Pretty incredible isn't it" Ado L'sau asked as he undid the straps keeping him in the first mate seat of the small yacht, _Moon Chaser._

"What's that?" Captain Ky Burel asked in return as he ran through the post-flight checklist.

"This!" the young Duros exclaimed as he gestured broadly out the front viewport to the skyline of Fondoria, the aptly named capital of the Imperial world of Fondor. "These Imps sure know how to build a city. If this is the Colonies imagine what the core looks like".

Ky looked up for the first time and shrugged with his eyes if such a thing were possible. "Ado were from Nar Shadaa. Our city is a lot bigger than this"

Now it was Ado's turn to actually shrug, "but this is…clean".

"Yeah well when you fine someone half a days paper for throwing a wrapper on the ground this is what you get." The captain undid his own straps and stood up. "I'll take grimy and free any day".

Ado had been first mating long enough for the older human to know when their conversations were over. He went to stand up.

"Did you use the checklist?" the captain asked him as he did.

Most humans could not tell when a Duros looked sheepishly annoyed but Ky Burel had spent all of his fifty six standard years on Nar Shadaa, probably the most speciously diverse planet or moon in the galaxy, although a few snotty Courscanti may argue that point. "I don't need the checklist anymore Cap" Ado answered while completely failing to not sound petulant about it.

"All trainees gotta use the checklist Ado…and you're still a trainee".

Ado started to sit back down to redo his portion of the post-flight from the manual.

Ky also knew when to stop pushing and shrugged. "Alright, alright. Start moving the cargo down towards the ramp would ya?"

L'asu nodded, welcoming the respite from the uncomfortable repartee. Ky went to the back of the small cruiser and hit the button that opened the cargo ramp. "So where are these guys?" he groaned as he moved another box towards the lip of the ramp.

Light poured into the far end of the bay as a door whooshed open seemingly in answer to his question. A human flanked by a male Twi'lek and another of his own species walked out of the shadow. "Deals off" the human blurted.

Ado's throat caught and he stood up from the case he was resting his elbows on. He immediately began scanning for an exit, but Ky didn't seem worried at all and just grunted incredulously. "Whatdya mean deal's off?"

"You didn't hear?" the human asked.

"Hear what!?" Captain Burel asked back, now clearly losing his patience.

"Your boss is out of business"

"What are you talking about?"

Ado watched the human hold out a hand and the other human placed a datapad in it which he proceeded to hand to his captain.

"Barsa was arrested this morning GST".

Ado saw the captain flipping furiously through a story on the pad.

"Jedi walked right into his base and walked him right out, after slicing and dicing most of his security I'm sure."

"They took him without a shot" Ky said in disbelief still looking at the datapad intently.

"Yeah apparently he had three bodyguards with him but the Jedi pulled their weapons right out of their hands…there is a security feed at the end of the article."

Ky flipped to the bottom and played it. It happened just as their contact said it did. Barsa's state of the art security even gave voice to the Hutt as he said "not very sporting fight now Jedi" to the tall hooded figure moving closer to the giant invertebrate. "Was attempting to prevent any fight at all Barsa" the camera picked up the last of the clip's audio.

"Well look someone will take over the organization" Ky protested.

"You didn't read it all. They walked out with the entire Arrok Clan. Your organization is done". With that he snapped at his men and they made their way up the ramp and started picking up two of the cases.

"Hold on, hold on. We still have to get paid" he said motioning to Ado.

The human shrugged. "How much were you supposed to get paid?"

"Eight thousand a piece" Ky answered without missing a beat.

The human shrugged again and pulled out a credit pouch. He opened it and flipped Ky a single chit. "I'll give you ten total and don't ask again".

As the Fondorians turned to go with the crates of weapons Ky looked to his first mate and chuckled as he handed him five thousand credit chits. "Still one more than we were going to get from Barsa"

Ado took it approvingly. "I don't know how you stay that cool Cap".

"Time in the game my boy, just time in the game" he said with a fatherly clasp to the shoulder as they turned to walk back up the ramp.

"So what do we do now?"

"Ado I think this is the Force you're always going on about closing one door and opening another"

The Duros looked confused and his captain took him by both shoulders. "We're gonna go into business for ourselves. No more Barsa or any boss deigning to give us ten percent. Everything we procure we're going to move and get one hundred percent of the profit" he said with a smile as wide as his eyes.

"But how are we going to procure without Barsa?"

"Haven't you been watching HNN? It's the best economy anyone has seen in millenia. That means a lot of rich folks with a lot of excess property" he finished with a slap to the shoulder and moved back up to the cabin.

"Oh Force help me" Ado muttered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2-A Window Opens**

**3 years later**

"Slower…slower" Ado rasped into the mic as he looked up at his partner in the open skylight above.

Ky Burel removed his finger from the ear piece and consented to his younger partners demand by tapping the bottom key of the rapelling tripod affixed to the dome roof of the Altorel Corporation on Bespin. It would be more accurate to say "above Bespin" as the planet in question was a gas giant without a solid surface. However, some enterprising beings had set up an orbital gas mining center called Cloud City. Over the decades the company headquarters would develop into an actual city with a population numbering two and half million at last check. Cloud City had longed stop being just a mining center and under the administration of the galaxy famous Lando Calrissian, Cloud City had become one of the go to places for small tech firms looking to innovate away from the prying eyes of the government.

Long ago, Ky couldn't say when as pre Great War history was not his forte…and Nar Shadaa's school system was not renowned, the Old Republic had realized the dangers of technology. Not just the same old 'AI taking over' clichés, but the more subtle ways technology could ruin a civilization. Thus the Science and Technology committee was born, and quickly became the home of the most influential senators in the galaxy. Men, women, and aliens that could revoke the trade license of a multi-trillion credit company with the stroke of their stylus. If they deemed their patent would be harmful to society i.e. would it take jobs away from organics or potentially kill them?

Under the regulation of the STC droids remained essentially unchanged for millenia. Always designed to be process efficient and physically deficient. Droids were made to be clunky, uncoordinated, and non-threatening in appearance. Potential technology like molecular transportation devices and fabricators were kyboshed and research into them was prosecuted no differently than mass murder. As their creation and proliferation would mean potentially trillions of unemployed beings with hands out and idle time. Which brought Ky back to the here and now as he looked at the classical Coruscanti architectural skyline of Cloud City, a place where innovators could ply their trade without such oversight. They may never change the big things in the galaxy like molecular replication, but they could make a few billion pecking at the margins of what the Republic, and now the Triumvirate, would allow. Places like Altorel Corporation.

Down below Ado looked behind him to see where the ground was and immediately wished he hadn't. It was times like this he wished he had actual eyelids instead of transparent membranes. "Remind me why I'm doing this" he whispered again.

"Because Altorel are some of the best modifiers in the galaxy. People will pay big credits for their droid modulators" Ky answered.

"No. I mean why I am I doing this" he grabbed the carbon fiber cord attached to the hook around his waist.

"Oh that. Because I don't have that famous Duro metabolism" the older human answered before taking a bite of something as if to emphasize his point that he was overweight. "look you steal it, I find a way to sell it. You're always good with this arrangement until the day of the theft".

"I know, I know" the Duros waved a hand. "OK stop". Ky hit a button on the tripod and Ado came to a stop two meters above the floor. He took what looked like a holdout blaster with a spool and fired it into the wall.

"On three" he whispered into the mic and at that count he hit his reel in button while Ky feathered the slack button, allowing Ado to be pulled to the wall and away from the motion sensors imbedded a meter above the central floor of the office space.

He slid down the wall like a bug on a windscreen and continued to hug it until he got to the doorway. He unlatched himself and held the cord as high as he could until Ky had the line tight and could reel it in without swinging it through the motion sensors.

Now for Ado it was time to get to work and he pulled up the pricey layout of the Altorel building on his wristpad. Confident in his position he choked down the last bit of nerves as adrenaline took over and stole out into the darkened hallway. He needed to get out of the upstairs offices and down to the labs. However, lifts were a no go as they couldn't take the chance they were linked to the building's security system and with space a premium on Bespin there were no stairs either. Once he got out into the atrium he fired his silent grappler at the railing a foot away. He ran the line through a spool around his waist and climbed the railing. Hooked up or not, letting go of the railing when your thirty floors above a marble floor and fountain with numerous sharp edges was not something he enjoyed. However, he worked up his nerve and did just that.

Cruising smoothly down the empty office floors he looked down to confirm his position when he saw a light peeking out from under the ledge of the floor just beneath him. On instinct he pinched the line and came to a stop. Heart racing again he grabbed onto the meter of duracrete that separated floor four from three and slowly as he could peeked over the edge. In a lab annex was a human talking to another human by vid screen. All in all not too unusual but it was three in the morning. Unfortunately for Ado, the vid conference was taking place on the floor he needed to get off on. Instead he climbed up the railing he was now under and unhooked himself. He spotted the first lab annex but before he could make his way there he saw another human across the atrium but on the same floor and turning to come to his side of the floor. Now two humans working this late was getting a little odd, but still not a cause for panic. The building employed some two thousand beings and it did sell their legit modulators all over the galaxy. It would stand to reason they could have some business to do in the middle of the night. Just as he eased his mind was when he saw it. As the human walked from atrium moonlight into the shadow of the floor his eyes flashed a clear light blue. Ado's heart caught in his throat and he hugged himself to the floor and crawled to the nearest door. He got out of the breezeway just as the whatever it was turned left into the corner offices. Ado let out a choppy breath and tried the door. Thankfully it was open.

Ado still wasn't able to ease his mind as he made his way back into the actual lab and found a floor hatch to a vent. _Were they cosmetic? Cosmetic eyes would be visible in any light. And he had heard from human friends that they were a pain to wear so were usually only worn during a night out. Cybernetics? Yeah maybe the guy lost his eyes! That was it. It had to be. _Feeling much better about what he had seen he cut his way into the vent and started moving down to the floor below.

As he crawled through the air duct trying not to think about getting stuck or cyber eyes he heard voices from up ahead and remembered the vid conference he saw hanging upside down minutes before. _This might be a way to figure out for sure what these humans are doing here now _he thought as he crawled to the grate that looked down on the lab office from the corner. The human was still talking to another human through the vid screen and as Ado settled in the present human was finishing saying "they have to have moved on Naboo before the broadcast".

"Why before? Why not simultaneously?" the vidscreen figure asked.

"It will not take the Empire long to trace the broadcast. If our brothers have not neutralized the Fels than it will take them only slightly longer to retaliate. We must be in control of Naboo by then so that we can by rights control the GAG on Corellia and order them to form a defensive screen against possible retaliation from Coruscant".

"What if we get control of Naboo but our brothers fail on Coruscant?"

"then millions of humans die while we multiply. It is not ideal but either way will work as long as we get control of the GA."

"What about the Jedi on Tython?"

"They're a wildcard. We have to hope they sit out any fighting that occurs and by the time we are in control their numbers will be too few to stop us".

"Very good. I'll relay your orders" and with that the screen went black and the human in the room stood and moved to the door. There was no wasted time or motions. The human never moved his hands from the desk on either side of the vid screen. He never rocked in his chair or made a frustrated motion with his hands at his partner's questions. It was clear now to Ado that the humans he had seen were actually skinjobs; droids covered in flesh to look human. A modification that had been highly illegal since the Droid Uprising before the Great War some six thousands years ago. Ado knew as he backed up that he had just stumbled upon the planning for the Second Droid Uprising, and he was now the only being in a galaxy of hundreds of trillions that could do anything to stop it.

This job was bust. He no longer cared about the processors, and as much as he might complain he knew Ky wouldn't care either. He shimmied his way back to the vent he had entered but now saw another synthetic in the annex. He continued to back up as quietly as he could and a few minutes later came to another vent over a processor cooling station. He cut that vent and dropped down. As he got his bearings in the freezing cold room he noticed blue bags everywhere around the room. He reached for the nearest one, his mind already racing, and unzipped it. There staring back at him was the cloudy-eyed face of a dead human. He recoiled in terror and bumped into the humming cooling unit. He reached for the one beside it and with now shaking hands unzipped that one as well. This time it was a human female no older than ten.

Ado stood, his heart thumping in his temples. Bile rising in his esophagus which he choked back down bitterly. The room must've held thirty to forty body bags and was just one of a dozen cooling stations around the labs. Worse, to his sheer horror, there was another ten or eleven rooms just like this. He had no doubt they were filled as well. Not only did the synthetics kill the Altorel employees, but they must have gone to their homes and killed their family members as well. But how long could they keep up this ruse? Eventually the friends of these families would begin to ask questions. Whatever they were planning had to be done soon.

Ado ducked out of the cooling station and sneaked back towards the lift banks. There was no way he could risk going back out to the atrium. He shot into the first lift and pressed the button for the top floor. As the glass tube hit the halfway mark in its rise he saw a synthetic come out an office and coldly look left and right, no doubt trying to hone in on the noise he heard, before he looked up to Ado in the lift. He didn't yell. He didn't gesticulate. He simply started walking towards the lifts…quickly. Ado had been a child during the One Sith uprising was and he remembered a bar exploding right near his childhood home that he later learned was caused by Ania Solo. But the fear he felt as an eight year old child paled into comparison to the fear he felt as the lift doors opened. He dare not look left or right as he tore out of the lift and sprinted down the breezeway to the conference room. Halfway there he finally turned on his throat mic. "Ky drop the cord now!" the volume of his voice scared himself and definitely startled the captain. "By the Force!" he shouted.

As Ado came to the room he heard the lifts from the bank to his left ding and the doors opened to reveal two synthetics with blasters. Ado ducked as the bolts came across the atrium and shattered the office windows above his head. He scrambled into the conference room. Thankfully he and Burel had been together long enough that the human did not question him and the cord was already lowered. Ado ran right through the motion sensors and hooked himself up, his fingers fumbling with the clasp as bolts began to hit the entryway.

"Stang! Stang! Stang!" he cried as he finally got the clasp in. "Good!" he yelled above him and immediately the line tightened and ripped him up from the floor and toward the skylight and freedom. Glass continued to shatter below him as he hit the self-made hole in the skylight and was pulled all the way onto the roof by his partner.

"Lets go!" Ado shouted as he rose to his feet and unhooked himself. Ky started breaking down the tripod as fast as he could, starting at the base.

"Leave it! No time!" Ado pulled at him and shots came through the skylight emphasizing Ado's point. Ky left everything and the two ran and then butt slid down to the roof transom and their waiting speeder.

In the conference room the synth called Enfor by other synths looked to his leader. "Do you want me to get a speeder brought around?"

The leader, Kaysix, looked at him and gave a barely perceptible shake. "No brother. Get me all the vid feeds in the building. And get someone up there and see what they left".


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3-What would a Ranger do?**

They got back to the _Moon Chaser _without incident but that only alleviated the knot in Ado's stomach for a moment. After relaying the night's events to his partner, he now sat at the co-pilot station while Ky paved the cabin behind him.

"So, what are you saying? Are you saying we turn ourselves in over this?" the human gesticulated wildly.

"What do you mean turn ourselves in? we didn't take anything." Ado answered unsure.

"We broke into the building Ado! Not only is that a charge in and of itself, but the fact we were able to break in to a building that secure is bound to raise some questions for the GAG" Ky said exasperated.

Ado sat and pondered their predicament while Ky continued his pacing. "What about Val?"

"Valeria?" Ky answered the question with one of his own. "She's a trade official, not a cop."

She was an unscrupulous one at that. "She's technically part of the GAG government. We give her the info and tell her to keep our names out of it and she can relay it to Naboo".

At this Ky finally came to a stop and cupped his chin. His consistent tell that he was considering the advice. "Alright that could work. But first we get this clear; we're not 'giving' anything. This information is worth ten times what we could've made on that job and we are going to at least recoup that amount".

Uncomfortable with that part but unwilling to go back to square one after getting him here Ado relented and agreed. Ky sat down and punched in the coordinates for home.

Enfor strode with purpose down the hallway of the now simulated workplace that was Altorel Corporation. It was now mid-morning on Bespin and Enfor felt the soothing sense of accomplishment he lived for as he approached the door to Kaysix's office. The door tucked silently into its wall space and Enfor approached his perturbed looking leader.

"I still have no vidfeeds at my station" Kaysix entoned in a voice that let his servant know he was not pleased.

"There is no need my Prime. We were able to pull organic DNA off the rappelling machine on the roof" Enfor answered trying not to sound too pleased with himself.

"And?" Kaysix folded his hands in his lap.

"His name is Ky Burel, small time thief and smuggler out of Nar Shadaa".

"Then waste no more time? Take Eltwo and Zeefive and neutralize Ky Burel and his partner"

Enfour left the office feeling satisfied. He did not need adulation from his Prime. The successful completion of orders was all he needed".

Nar Shadaa looked like a mini-version of Corsucant. The small moon was covered with one giant city that was home to over a billion beings of all species and races. Humans seemed to still have a small plurality of the population but it was hard to tell and no one here did a census. While the wider galaxy considered the "Smuggler's Moon" to be just that; a moon full of scoundrels and petty criminals, the majority of Nar Shadaa's citizens were decent folk who didn't participate in crime at any levels. Numerous corporations made their home on the moon, mostly for tax purposes, and their presence was evidenced by the massive cloudcutters that rose up across the city skyline. Ky landed in their rented hangar and they moved cautiously to the apartment Ky shared with his wife, Lona.

Ado was incredibly nervous. He could see Ky was as well and the thought of Ky being even more nervous than him made him feel a bit better. He always found it strange that if you were scared with someone it made the situation more bearable. Ky's apartment was on the other side of the circular floor from the lift bank and sliding along the inner wall in order to peek around every curve made it all the more longer. Finally though they reached his door and Ky put a thumb to the pad and the door made an electronic clicking sound signaling it would no longer resist. Ado remembered Ky showing off that door when they first moved in here. For the working classes, a door with a handle rather than one that slid into a recess was a sign that you were moving up in the world.

"El" Ky called out. "Didi" he called again for their daughter.

"Lights" he said, his voice cracking a bit. "Lona!" he called again louder. This time he was answered. "In here" came Lona's voice but sounding distressed.

Both Ado and Ky practically jumped to the refresher door in the hallway. As they opened it both of their hearts went from in their throat to full to bursting with love as they saw their wife and the woman Ado referred to as his sister-by-marriage struggling to hold three-year-old Dealla's head under the primary head in their sonic shower. Ky half collapsed along the wall before enveloping them both in his arms.

"What's wrong?" she asked after receiving a kiss and turning back to Didi. "Nothing" he answered too quickly and she shot him a sideways look that reminded him who he was talking to. "Well probably nothing. Did anyone come by at all? I mean like a deliveryman, building inspector? Anything like that?" he asked and she shook her head. "Nooo. No one has been by. Well I mean except Marsella came by for a glass of wine a couple hours ago". Marsella, was his wife's best friend and their neighbor. Lona had known her since essential school. There was no way she was part of this. "Alright we have to go see somebody down the street. Can you do me a favor and take her next door till we get back"

Lona looked at him askance but didn't argue, just nodded. "Sure, but when are you _coming_ back?"

"An hour. Two at the most. Anything over that and I want you to stay the night. If we're still not back put D in the Moon Chaser and head for Ord Mantell".

Now Dealla's hair was done and Lona took her out from under the cleansing head and hugged to her chest. "Ky what is going on?" she asked getting exasperated with all this cloak and dagger.

"Just trust me honey. I don't think its anything we have to worry about yet. If I'm right than I'll tell you everything in an hour." He said giving his daughter a kiss on the head.

"And if you're wrong" she asked still unconvinced.

"Then we're going to have to run for a bit" he answered with the most sheepish grin he could manage.

"Oh you two" she said and looked the ceiling. Something she always did before asking the Force to give her strength.

Ado glanced over his sloped Duros shoulder for probably the 20th time in the short walk to the GA Trade Administration complex. The bureau managed the ports and implemented and collected whatever tariffs or trade laws had been passed by Parliament. The Twi'lek Valeria Ro-Chino had been the official whose palms the pair had greased when they set up their 'import-export' firm 3 years ago. They got into see her fairly quickly. Valeria was, and always had been, a late shift official. Ky and Ado would never have met her otherwise as late was generally the time they "imported" their product.

Valeria seemed incredulous but also knew Ky and Ado were not prone to exaggeration. Unlike a lot of beings in their business they didn't drink a lot or smoke any kind of strong spice like ryll.

"Guys I don't have to tell you how crazy this sounds" she said, hands splayed out wide.

"No you don't Val, we just spent almost fifty hours trying to wrap our heads around it ourselves. But if Ado said that's what was said then I believe him, and you should too. Because even though I wasn't there for the conversation or the bodies I definitely saw and felt the blaster bolts coming at me from the room below."

"Well you were" she checked the anti-monitoring device on her desk to make sure the light was still green, "breaking in to a level 5 corporation".

"Valeria, they detain and call the cops. No company opens fire on burglars anymore" Ado answered, getting slightly frustrated at not being believed.

She sat back in her chair for a good minute. Clearly weighing everything she had just heard against the reputations of the two men in front of her. Finally, she sat forward again. "Alright, I believe you. I have seen enough in this job to know there are companies seriously pushing the limits on AI and the idea that one backfired this badly is not beyond the realm of possibility."

Both Ky and Ado made varying gestures of relief. "But listen, you're not going to be able to disappear back into the night on this one. Naboo will want to hear your testimony."

They looked at each other. "We know. But Ado believes its what a Jedi would do".

She shot him a sideways look with an "aren't you the cutest" smile. "Ahh like a real live Ranger. Good for you Ado."

She stood up. "Alright hang tight for two minutes".

Ado started to ask her where she had to go, but for the first time in almost 3 days he didn't feel nervous.

"Alright our next stop has to be Aryn's" Ky said folding one leg over his other. Aryn Bunarel was their lawyer on the Moon.

Before Ado could add his two cents the door opened again and Val came back in with a datapad. "Alright boys this is Nyin our attache to Nab-" Valeria never finished saying the name of one of the most influential planets in the GA as a light shone like a halo behind her head a split second before her forehead exploded outward in a shocking and macabre projection. Valeria dropped and revealed a pale skinned blonde human holding an x5-night sniper hand blaster and an equally terrifying look. Ado's uselessness in that moment would nag at him for days, but it was only because of Ky that he would have those days to feel so badly.


End file.
